Cole, 2D platformer for Android/iOS is looking for Artists/Animators

Team Coleteam is recruiting for a game titled Cole. The game is a 2D adventure platformer (built in Unity C#) where you play as cole, who is a duplicate coal-mining bot aboard the S.S. Spaceship. Upon creation you are told that your sole purpose in life is to mine and shovel coal to put into the furnace. You go through an existence orientation explaining how to shovel coal and then are hurried into the coal room where you mine coal for the rest of your existence, with one catch. Upon exploring the small coal room, the player can discover a way to escape, and when they finally do, they are able to explore S.S. spaceship and fight various enemies, bosses, play minigames, and encounter and engage with various characters. These dialogues will have many different outcomes and effects on the story based on your choices of actions and dialogue. The goal of the game is to travel to the top of the spaceship, where the captain is rumored to reside, so that you can confront him about your enslavement and hopefully find out the mysterious destination of the S.S. Spaceship. The style is a sort-of dark comedy that leaves the player saying... "what just happened?"

Videos:
Original Commercial (Satire): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00zXt-ken5k
Gameplay/Animation showoff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg1HVHRFtks
Example of weekly footage showing off everyone's work for that week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzSfP...ature=youtu.be

Production goals: We plan to release this for Android and iOS, aiming for a release in Summer or Fall (with the main goal being summer) of 2014. We’re focusing on mobile platforms, but are also considering getting it working on tablets as well. This is part of the USC Final Games program, which is the best collegiate Video Games program in the United States. We’re currently in the last third of the first semester, and we have 2 semesters to complete the project. The second semester starts after Christmas, and that’s when new people would most likely start, unless you’re eager to get started early or we just really need you and you’re willing.

Production Pipeline: Work is weekly. For volunteers that aren’t enrolled in the class, we are obviously flexible to your schedules, but we need communication so we know when you can and cannot work. Every Sunday and Thursday we have team meetings on campus (which obviously we know you cannot attend if you are nowhere near USC), but for those who cannot attend, we will have notes on the meetings so you can know what went on, and we can potentially Skype you in for these meetings for those who can/want to attend. Every Tuesday you’ll turn in your previous week’s assignment and receive your assignment for the following week. Turn-ins involve communicating with the Art Director and emailing/uploading your work.

Current Team:
>Director/Lead Designer: 1 registered
>Producer: 1 registered
>Engineers: 6 registered, 2 unregistered volunteers, this includes our Technical Director and Technical Artist.
>Designers: 4 registered
>Art: 2 registered, 6 unregistered volunteers, 3 external
>Sound: 1 unregistered volunteer
>Music: 1 unregistered volunteer

======NEEDS======

Artists/Animators: We really need as many 2d animators as we can possibly get. A major focus of the game is on character interaction, and we currently have limited resources when it comes to 2d animation, so to get all the characters that we want animated, we will need more 2d Animators. If you have skills in other areas of 2d art, or are willing to attempt to break into 2d animation, let me know, but we are primarily looking for 2d animators.

Technical Artist: We need somebody who is experienced with unity and memory management to take the assets that our artists and sound designers make and implement them in the game, as well as managing communication with the artists to let them know what to make that would be most useful for our game. They’ll have to keep in mind all of the memory limitations that mobile implements, and keep in mind that this is a mobile app, and not a PC app, so phone screens are much smaller, and therefore we can use smaller sprites without a noticeable reduction in quality. This will also include the job of converting wav sounds to a good bit rate for mp3s (this is an easy task), and organizing atlases that are already in the game, as well as cleaning up old project items. We only recently got a technical artist last week, and he could be a valuable engineer, so it would be nice to have him working on code if we can find somebody who is interested and experienced in this position.

Why should you join Team Coleteam?
If you’re trying to break into the games field, or just trying to get some experience or portfolio pieces under your belt, C# and Unity is a great place to start. Joining us will give you the experience of working on an industry-sized team, as well as add a great, finished game to your portfolio. In addition, the University of Southern California Games program is widely recognized throughout the industry nationwide, and even worldwide, as the best games program there is. There will be 2 demo days where we will show off our game to industry professionals, and your name will be on the credits list, so it could even potentially get you a job. All presentations will be recorded and you’ll have access to. If you get involved with us, the Trojan name carries weight, as well as just the experience you’ll get working with us. We are currently planning to release the game for free, so experience is our main goal, but if it does well enough, we will likely enter the freemium model for mobile apps, releasing content for small fees, which could amount to large sums with a lot of customers. Keep this in mind: All of us enrolled are paying upwards of $5000 or more just to have the opportunity to be in this class, and you’re being given this opportunity for free.

If you have any questions, post here (or e-mail me at jbhunter@usc.edu), and I will get back to you within 24 hours.